Croft, Stuart (2012) Constructing ontological insecurity : the insecuritization of Britain's Muslims. Contemporary Security Policy, Vol.33 (No.2). pp. 219-235. doi:10.1080/13523260.2012.693776

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Abstract

The development of ontological security studies, for example by Mitzen, Steele, and Berenskoetter and Giegerich, has been an important innovation in the field. However, by focusing on the level of the state rather than that of the individual, this new tradition is somewhat different from the intellectual origins of ontological security in sociology and psychology. Drawing on those disciplines, I argue that the key focus should be on the understandings of individuals about their own security, intersubjectively constructed. Ontological security can be understood in terms of the need to construct biographical continuity, to construct a web of trust relations, to act in accordance with self-integrity, and to struggle against ontological insecurity, or dread, in Kierkegaard's sense. I then take and apply this framework to understand the process by which British Muslims have become insecuritized (understood as a term through which dominant power can decide who should be protected and who should be designated as those to be controlled, objectified, and feared) in the period since 9/11.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Journal or Publication Title:	Contemporary Security Policy
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1352-3260
Official Date:	2012
Dates:	Date Event 2012 Published
Volume:	Vol.33
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 219-235
DOI:	10.1080/13523260.2012.693776
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published

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